Teahouse treehouse galleon ship from 90% waste in Santa Cruz

When carpenter Jay Duffy began building a treehouse in his fiance’s front yard for her two sons, he used discarded materials from his construction jobs. With leftover redwood siding, recycled windows and an old barn door, the fort slowly began to resemble a small house.

When Duffy and his fiancée Chandra Lila noticed that her sons weren’t using the space very often, they began to make themselves at home. Now it’s their “teahouse treehouse”. Duffy has created cabinets to store their teas and utensils and they’ve added a pull-out mat for reading and taking naps.

The space was built to fit the tree. It’s supported by 3 beams and chains and Duffy didn’t remove a single branch. Instead, limbs cross through walls and slice the interior. The nearly transparent plastic roof allows dappled light from the tree’s canopy to enter.